Thursday, June 25, 2009
Vacation Time
Incommunicado until Monday. I know you're all just dying for the next chapter of my book here , but you'll just have to wait :D Apparently I've also been having issues with my comments, which I will try to fix, but until then, grace and peace be with you!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ezekiel 11
I actually got a lot out of this chapter (imagine that) so I wanted to make it it's own separate entry.
Chapter 11 - More Judgement and a Little Ray of Hope
Vs 1-13. It's interesting to me that God actually singles out 25 prominent leaders for judgement, and names 2 in particular. The death of Pelatiah at the end of the section echoes a later verse in 12:25 "There will be no more delays, you rebels of Israel. I will fulfill my threat of destruction in your own lifetime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Someone's going to have to explain to me the significance of the iron pot the Lord keeps speaking of; was this a typical utensil or is there some kind of symbolic significance behind it being iron?
Vs 14-20. Again we find a little hope in the total destruction of Israel and its people. But this message is to those in exile, which is interesting because it's a future hope for people who have survived and are taken from their land by God's will. I am struck by vs 16 & 17, particularly the part saying "I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile." It's interesting to note that synagogues (local jewish places of worship) didn't exist until the exile because God always wanted them to worship at his central location, the Temple. However,k the people needed to worship, bind together as a community, and read and review the law when there was no temple to worship in. Thus the synagogue was born to meet this need. I guess you could interpret the above scripture as prophecy saying that God would provide for them a place of worship even when his temple was destroyed. Another interpretation would be that God would never leave them completely alone, that he wouldn't forget his covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc. He will be their place of refuge in a foreign land, He will be their help in times of trouble. This speaks not only to the people but the prophets in exile too such as Daniel.
This also speaks to us because God is always with us, even in our times of exile. This exile is usually self-imposed, an exile borne out of sin and rebellion or a lack of true communion with with the body, but can also be imposed on a person through hurt from others and the Church. It is hard to remind oneself that God is with us even during our exiles, but I think a lot of this has to do with our emotional state rather than our spiritual state or logical mind. Americans tend to over-emphasize emotion when it comes to our spiritual state: if we don't feel like God is close, He must not be. But God is faithful, He is our sanctuary regardless if we feel it or not. He is bigger than our emotions, and bigger than our sins; His grace extends to us throughout the Earth, no matter where our exile takes us! Praise be to God!
Vs 22-24. The creepy looking seraphim and their technicolor flying machine are back, this time to escort God's presence from Jerusalem. At first I thought this may foreshadow God's eventual leaving of the temple after the death of Christ, but now that I think about it, this over-interprets and over-extends the original purpose of this scripture. After Christ died, His presence didn't leave Jerusalem; it actually finally came to Jerusalem! His presence now filled the hearts of the people, the temple of humanity's soul, in the most intimate means possible. No longer confined to a building made of brick and mortar, but that of the very intentions and will of man. It's so awe inspiring and humbling at the same time.
Chapter 11 - More Judgement and a Little Ray of Hope
Vs 1-13. It's interesting to me that God actually singles out 25 prominent leaders for judgement, and names 2 in particular. The death of Pelatiah at the end of the section echoes a later verse in 12:25 "There will be no more delays, you rebels of Israel. I will fulfill my threat of destruction in your own lifetime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Someone's going to have to explain to me the significance of the iron pot the Lord keeps speaking of; was this a typical utensil or is there some kind of symbolic significance behind it being iron?
Vs 14-20. Again we find a little hope in the total destruction of Israel and its people. But this message is to those in exile, which is interesting because it's a future hope for people who have survived and are taken from their land by God's will. I am struck by vs 16 & 17, particularly the part saying "I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile." It's interesting to note that synagogues (local jewish places of worship) didn't exist until the exile because God always wanted them to worship at his central location, the Temple. However,k the people needed to worship, bind together as a community, and read and review the law when there was no temple to worship in. Thus the synagogue was born to meet this need. I guess you could interpret the above scripture as prophecy saying that God would provide for them a place of worship even when his temple was destroyed. Another interpretation would be that God would never leave them completely alone, that he wouldn't forget his covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc. He will be their place of refuge in a foreign land, He will be their help in times of trouble. This speaks not only to the people but the prophets in exile too such as Daniel.
This also speaks to us because God is always with us, even in our times of exile. This exile is usually self-imposed, an exile borne out of sin and rebellion or a lack of true communion with with the body, but can also be imposed on a person through hurt from others and the Church. It is hard to remind oneself that God is with us even during our exiles, but I think a lot of this has to do with our emotional state rather than our spiritual state or logical mind. Americans tend to over-emphasize emotion when it comes to our spiritual state: if we don't feel like God is close, He must not be. But God is faithful, He is our sanctuary regardless if we feel it or not. He is bigger than our emotions, and bigger than our sins; His grace extends to us throughout the Earth, no matter where our exile takes us! Praise be to God!
Vs 22-24. The creepy looking seraphim and their technicolor flying machine are back, this time to escort God's presence from Jerusalem. At first I thought this may foreshadow God's eventual leaving of the temple after the death of Christ, but now that I think about it, this over-interprets and over-extends the original purpose of this scripture. After Christ died, His presence didn't leave Jerusalem; it actually finally came to Jerusalem! His presence now filled the hearts of the people, the temple of humanity's soul, in the most intimate means possible. No longer confined to a building made of brick and mortar, but that of the very intentions and will of man. It's so awe inspiring and humbling at the same time.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ezekiel 4 - 10
Chapter 4 - Holy Poop
I think this chapter shows the beginning of the social protest movement. All you hippees that thought you had it right in the 60 had nothin' on this old man! I mean come on! Ezekiel was made to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right for 40, one day for every sin of Judah and Israel (the split kingdoms). This is hard core, man! Almost a year and four months not being able to get up, stretch your feet, walk around, go to the bathroom... Can you imagine how sore you'd be, or the sores that would develop, or the atrophy? Gandhi's got nothin on this guy! I just wonder how God took care of him during this time and what the public reaction would be.
What's more is that God tells him in verse 12 to make his food provisions over a fire using dried human dung... If Ezekiel had ever had doubts about getting into the prophet business, now would be the time. However, even in this time God listens to his prophet and allows provisions, sort of. Instead of human dung God allows Ezekiel to use cow dung instead. Well thanks!
All this is to show Israel just how much they've defiled themselves in their sin. They might as well have eaten crap. It parallels Jesus' warnings to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, how they clean the outside but the inside is still filthy. It's not enough that your actions are holy but your mind and heart must be as well.
Chapter 5 -7 - Coming Judgement
A lot of this book is designed to warn Israel of its coming judgement. Israel has prostituted itself to other gods; lesser gods who have no feeling or any care for their followers. Verse 13 talks to God's jealous anger. After hearing what the Israelites have done, how they have completely defiled the temple, ignored the law, sent false prophets to appease the hearts of the people, and broken the covenant so completely, it's just mind blowing that God didn't wipe them out by this point, before it got to be so bad. He uses such violent imagery: parents eating their children and children their parents; that God is their enemy, that He will hide His eyes while the robbers invade and violate the land, that Israel will become an object of mockery and horror, showers of arrows, fire, and just overall devastation. Ch 7 V 13 "Not one person whole life is twisted by sin will recover"
But through it all there is still hope. Particularly in chapter 6 vs 8-10. God speaks of the remnant He will save from the destruction, a remnant of a remnant. "Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins." You see the heart of God coming through here. He never wanted this on His people; He is pained for having to do this, but His people will not change! But those who are saved will understand God's heart, seeing all the sins they have committed, and will be so destroyed emotionally by it that they will hate themselves.
I'm not sure which people group I'd rather be in: those destroyed in God's wrath, or those who survive just to fully grasp what's going on. To be in the first and face the full fury of a jealous YHWY, or to be in the second and want to kill myself from the shame I've brought on my people.
Notice also that in 5:7&8 God talks about the sins of the community being worse than their neighbors... the pagans... who don't know any better. That's gotta be bad. It also reflects on how the sins of the few affect the whole community. God sees sin not just at a personal and individual level (as American Christians are trained to believe) but in the whole context as a community. Sin spreads, infects, festers and reproduces. How do my sins affect my community? How does something I consider small and meaningless spread and infect? How am I responsible for the judgement passed on my community in the end? Will it be for good or ill?
Chapters 8-10 - Sin within the Temple
Throughout the whole of chapter 8, God brings Ezekiel in a vision through a tour of the temple to show him the many sins and idolatry taking place. Since this is a vision (v 3) you have to wonder if these events are just symbolic or if they're actually word-for-word taking place. If they actually are taking place, I cannot believe the audacity of these men who think they can get away with this right under God's nose! On his doorstep! An idol in the courtyards, secret worship of mystical beasts behind closed doors, worship of the sun at the east gate, weeping for foreign gods. The Israelites were falling in to the same practices their neighbors were, worshiping multiple gods at one temple, a whole one-stop worship time to cover all your bases. By the time we get to chapter 10, the serephim are back and escort the Lord's presence from the Temple. Check out ch 8 verse 6, “Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple?"
When I read this I just hear the hurt in God's voice. He allowed them to build the temple for Him against his first wishes (1 Chrn 17:5), then fills it with his presence in awesome splendor complete with ark (2 Chrn 7), and has remained there faithfully and accepts their sacrifices. Now they defile it in the most abhorrent ways. If my children, living under my roof and under my protection and provision, suddenly starting bringing other adults into my home to set up as their newer and better parents, despite all I've done for them, I'd go insane! I just can't help but hear the pain in this.
How wide His shoulders must be to carry the burdens he does. How thick his skin must be to handle all the blows to his character. People may accuse Him of having a heart of stone, but for all the abuse he takes at our expense, can you blame him? And yet he is patient with us, big enough for our doubts and our fears, and readily willing to wipe us clean if we but say the word. What a great God we serve! Thank you for loving me no matter how I kick and scream and doubt and worry and pester and how self centered I am. Thank you for being big enough to handle all I throw at you.
I think this chapter shows the beginning of the social protest movement. All you hippees that thought you had it right in the 60 had nothin' on this old man! I mean come on! Ezekiel was made to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right for 40, one day for every sin of Judah and Israel (the split kingdoms). This is hard core, man! Almost a year and four months not being able to get up, stretch your feet, walk around, go to the bathroom... Can you imagine how sore you'd be, or the sores that would develop, or the atrophy? Gandhi's got nothin on this guy! I just wonder how God took care of him during this time and what the public reaction would be.
What's more is that God tells him in verse 12 to make his food provisions over a fire using dried human dung... If Ezekiel had ever had doubts about getting into the prophet business, now would be the time. However, even in this time God listens to his prophet and allows provisions, sort of. Instead of human dung God allows Ezekiel to use cow dung instead. Well thanks!
All this is to show Israel just how much they've defiled themselves in their sin. They might as well have eaten crap. It parallels Jesus' warnings to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, how they clean the outside but the inside is still filthy. It's not enough that your actions are holy but your mind and heart must be as well.
Chapter 5 -7 - Coming Judgement
A lot of this book is designed to warn Israel of its coming judgement. Israel has prostituted itself to other gods; lesser gods who have no feeling or any care for their followers. Verse 13 talks to God's jealous anger. After hearing what the Israelites have done, how they have completely defiled the temple, ignored the law, sent false prophets to appease the hearts of the people, and broken the covenant so completely, it's just mind blowing that God didn't wipe them out by this point, before it got to be so bad. He uses such violent imagery: parents eating their children and children their parents; that God is their enemy, that He will hide His eyes while the robbers invade and violate the land, that Israel will become an object of mockery and horror, showers of arrows, fire, and just overall devastation. Ch 7 V 13 "Not one person whole life is twisted by sin will recover"
But through it all there is still hope. Particularly in chapter 6 vs 8-10. God speaks of the remnant He will save from the destruction, a remnant of a remnant. "Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins." You see the heart of God coming through here. He never wanted this on His people; He is pained for having to do this, but His people will not change! But those who are saved will understand God's heart, seeing all the sins they have committed, and will be so destroyed emotionally by it that they will hate themselves.
I'm not sure which people group I'd rather be in: those destroyed in God's wrath, or those who survive just to fully grasp what's going on. To be in the first and face the full fury of a jealous YHWY, or to be in the second and want to kill myself from the shame I've brought on my people.
Notice also that in 5:7&8 God talks about the sins of the community being worse than their neighbors... the pagans... who don't know any better. That's gotta be bad. It also reflects on how the sins of the few affect the whole community. God sees sin not just at a personal and individual level (as American Christians are trained to believe) but in the whole context as a community. Sin spreads, infects, festers and reproduces. How do my sins affect my community? How does something I consider small and meaningless spread and infect? How am I responsible for the judgement passed on my community in the end? Will it be for good or ill?
Chapters 8-10 - Sin within the Temple
Throughout the whole of chapter 8, God brings Ezekiel in a vision through a tour of the temple to show him the many sins and idolatry taking place. Since this is a vision (v 3) you have to wonder if these events are just symbolic or if they're actually word-for-word taking place. If they actually are taking place, I cannot believe the audacity of these men who think they can get away with this right under God's nose! On his doorstep! An idol in the courtyards, secret worship of mystical beasts behind closed doors, worship of the sun at the east gate, weeping for foreign gods. The Israelites were falling in to the same practices their neighbors were, worshiping multiple gods at one temple, a whole one-stop worship time to cover all your bases. By the time we get to chapter 10, the serephim are back and escort the Lord's presence from the Temple. Check out ch 8 verse 6, “Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple?"
When I read this I just hear the hurt in God's voice. He allowed them to build the temple for Him against his first wishes (1 Chrn 17:5), then fills it with his presence in awesome splendor complete with ark (2 Chrn 7), and has remained there faithfully and accepts their sacrifices. Now they defile it in the most abhorrent ways. If my children, living under my roof and under my protection and provision, suddenly starting bringing other adults into my home to set up as their newer and better parents, despite all I've done for them, I'd go insane! I just can't help but hear the pain in this.
How wide His shoulders must be to carry the burdens he does. How thick his skin must be to handle all the blows to his character. People may accuse Him of having a heart of stone, but for all the abuse he takes at our expense, can you blame him? And yet he is patient with us, big enough for our doubts and our fears, and readily willing to wipe us clean if we but say the word. What a great God we serve! Thank you for loving me no matter how I kick and scream and doubt and worry and pester and how self centered I am. Thank you for being big enough to handle all I throw at you.
Ezekiel 1 - 3
Chapter 1 - Ezekiel's Vision of God
Wow, I've read this before, but I'm always blown away by the imagery here. Obviously Ezekiel is seeing something that he cannot understand or fully describe (I mean, who could in his position?), so much so that at the end he fell face down in awe of the spectacle before him. Some people claim that this is proof that the bible shows evidence of alien visitation, and honestly, I can give them a little credit here. I can't decide who would be more closed minded and who would be more open minded in this situation: the person who believes it's an actual vision of God, or an alien visitation.
Conventional wisdom says that one can't approach this scripture as if it is a literal description of what Ezekiel actually saw, but is rather more metaphorical and symbolic. Some of the imagery I can understand but most I can't. I'll write about the imagery I can comprehend, but if you know anything about the imagery I don't, please comment and teach me!!
Some of the imagery I can understand such as the description of the serephim such as the multiple wings, faces and eyes all over. In fact this imagery is used elsewhere in the Bible. The wings represent their holiness and other-ness, different and more divine than that of the human form; and the fact that they hinder their eyes shows that they stand in the presence of the Lord and it's even hard for them to lay eyes on Him that is all holy. The faces are interesting. An old youth minister, Donny, once described to me that the faces represent the different aspects of god Himself. The human face: showing the Lord's connection to humanity and image bearingness. The ox's face: showing the Lord's service and self sacrifice fully exemplified through Christ. The lion's face: showing the Lord's kingliness and strength, but also his ferociousness, meant to be feared and respected. The eagle's face: representing the Lord's divinity, being above humanity. Being covered all in eyes, although creepy, just shows us that God sees all. Some cultures believe in the Evil Eye, a force that saw all things and needed to be warded away or to hide yourself from its judgement (Kabala comes to mind). However, with all these eyes on the serephim and the wheels, nothing's going to escape His sight! Not when even the underarms of the angels are covered as well!
The imagery I don't understand: (1) The wheels and the significance that there's wheels inside of wheels and the directions they take when the angles move. (2) The clear blue surface above the angel's heads (3) The significance of a sapphire throne, what does the sapphire represent to an exiled Jew? (4) Why it mattered about the direction of movement so much to be mentioned time after time.
Chapter 2 & 3 - Ezekiel's Call and A Watchman for Israel
2:2 - Mention of the Spirit (Rauch Hako'desh). Time after time in these chapter the Holy Spirit is mentioned as the one who lifts Ezekiel to his feet, empowering and strengthening him to see God face to face (2:2, 3:12, 3:14, 3:24, etc.) It's also interesting that in 3:14 and later, the Spirit whips Ezekiel away, similar to what He did to Phillip in Acts 4:39. I've never heard of the Spirit acting so in the Old Testament, but it's great to learn that He didn't just magically appear in the New Testament, but was actively working as an empowerer and revealer of God's glory.
God keeps telling Ezekiel in this charge not to fear the people of Israel. I heard once that 'do not fear' is the most often repeated commandment in the Bible (confirm?). Seems pretty important I guess :)
3:5-7. God says he's sending Ezekiel to his own people, not to foreigners otherwise the foreigners would listen and repent. How many times are we attracted to share the Good News with those who are the foreigners in our lives, but not with those who are out own people? This could be our families, our best friends, our coworkers, our neighbors. Heck, this could also just include Americans as a whole. Christians in America have an unhealthy attraction to go spread the gospel to foreign nations rather than those right here at home. I've heard that more missionaries are sent to America more than any other nation, and yet we send so many of our boldest brothers and sisters out! God give me the charge and the strength through your Spirit to spread the words of life to my own people!
3:18-21. This is interesting stuff. God says basically if you don't say what I want you to say and they die, their blood is on your hands, and God will demand Ezekiel's blood for theirs. "But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.” I don't know if I'm going too far in saying that this applies to we Christians as well in terms of the Gospel's good news. The Gospel is the good news because it gives life to those who are dead in their sins, so shouldn't it stand to reason that all these warnings apply to us as well? So if you don't share the Gospel and those we know die in the sins, is their blood on our hands? Will we be called into account for what we have said and not said? I don't want to guilt trip myself or others, but as Ben has said on a number of occasions, sometimes the whole 'Social Gospel' movement and 'living the Gospel' rather than sharing it sometimes misses the mark. There should be an urgency here! People are dying in their sins and we've been given the gift of life and the words of the Lord on our tongues, why are we ok to sit back and watch them die?! God give me the strength and the courage to seize the opportunity you put in front of me, to interpret the best way to handle the situation, and to give life to those who are dying!
Wow, I've read this before, but I'm always blown away by the imagery here. Obviously Ezekiel is seeing something that he cannot understand or fully describe (I mean, who could in his position?), so much so that at the end he fell face down in awe of the spectacle before him. Some people claim that this is proof that the bible shows evidence of alien visitation, and honestly, I can give them a little credit here. I can't decide who would be more closed minded and who would be more open minded in this situation: the person who believes it's an actual vision of God, or an alien visitation.
Conventional wisdom says that one can't approach this scripture as if it is a literal description of what Ezekiel actually saw, but is rather more metaphorical and symbolic. Some of the imagery I can understand but most I can't. I'll write about the imagery I can comprehend, but if you know anything about the imagery I don't, please comment and teach me!!
Some of the imagery I can understand such as the description of the serephim such as the multiple wings, faces and eyes all over. In fact this imagery is used elsewhere in the Bible. The wings represent their holiness and other-ness, different and more divine than that of the human form; and the fact that they hinder their eyes shows that they stand in the presence of the Lord and it's even hard for them to lay eyes on Him that is all holy. The faces are interesting. An old youth minister, Donny, once described to me that the faces represent the different aspects of god Himself. The human face: showing the Lord's connection to humanity and image bearingness. The ox's face: showing the Lord's service and self sacrifice fully exemplified through Christ. The lion's face: showing the Lord's kingliness and strength, but also his ferociousness, meant to be feared and respected. The eagle's face: representing the Lord's divinity, being above humanity. Being covered all in eyes, although creepy, just shows us that God sees all. Some cultures believe in the Evil Eye, a force that saw all things and needed to be warded away or to hide yourself from its judgement (Kabala comes to mind). However, with all these eyes on the serephim and the wheels, nothing's going to escape His sight! Not when even the underarms of the angels are covered as well!
The imagery I don't understand: (1) The wheels and the significance that there's wheels inside of wheels and the directions they take when the angles move. (2) The clear blue surface above the angel's heads (3) The significance of a sapphire throne, what does the sapphire represent to an exiled Jew? (4) Why it mattered about the direction of movement so much to be mentioned time after time.
Chapter 2 & 3 - Ezekiel's Call and A Watchman for Israel
2:2 - Mention of the Spirit (Rauch Hako'desh). Time after time in these chapter the Holy Spirit is mentioned as the one who lifts Ezekiel to his feet, empowering and strengthening him to see God face to face (2:2, 3:12, 3:14, 3:24, etc.) It's also interesting that in 3:14 and later, the Spirit whips Ezekiel away, similar to what He did to Phillip in Acts 4:39. I've never heard of the Spirit acting so in the Old Testament, but it's great to learn that He didn't just magically appear in the New Testament, but was actively working as an empowerer and revealer of God's glory.
God keeps telling Ezekiel in this charge not to fear the people of Israel. I heard once that 'do not fear' is the most often repeated commandment in the Bible (confirm?). Seems pretty important I guess :)
3:5-7. God says he's sending Ezekiel to his own people, not to foreigners otherwise the foreigners would listen and repent. How many times are we attracted to share the Good News with those who are the foreigners in our lives, but not with those who are out own people? This could be our families, our best friends, our coworkers, our neighbors. Heck, this could also just include Americans as a whole. Christians in America have an unhealthy attraction to go spread the gospel to foreign nations rather than those right here at home. I've heard that more missionaries are sent to America more than any other nation, and yet we send so many of our boldest brothers and sisters out! God give me the charge and the strength through your Spirit to spread the words of life to my own people!
3:18-21. This is interesting stuff. God says basically if you don't say what I want you to say and they die, their blood is on your hands, and God will demand Ezekiel's blood for theirs. "But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.” I don't know if I'm going too far in saying that this applies to we Christians as well in terms of the Gospel's good news. The Gospel is the good news because it gives life to those who are dead in their sins, so shouldn't it stand to reason that all these warnings apply to us as well? So if you don't share the Gospel and those we know die in the sins, is their blood on our hands? Will we be called into account for what we have said and not said? I don't want to guilt trip myself or others, but as Ben has said on a number of occasions, sometimes the whole 'Social Gospel' movement and 'living the Gospel' rather than sharing it sometimes misses the mark. There should be an urgency here! People are dying in their sins and we've been given the gift of life and the words of the Lord on our tongues, why are we ok to sit back and watch them die?! God give me the strength and the courage to seize the opportunity you put in front of me, to interpret the best way to handle the situation, and to give life to those who are dying!
In the beginning, there was the first post
Hello, welcome to Jesse's Cacophony. I began this blog as a spiritual discipline of sorts. I got motivated at the beginning of summer to read through my Bible, a task I've never seriously undertaken. Reasons being: (1) I don't process well unless I write, and doing this manually takes more time than it takes for my mind to think it (2) I don't usually process scripture well unless I have meaningful discussion involved (3) lack of motivation and just plain laziness (4) It's a daunting task, I mean, have you ever actually desired to read through genealogies and Mosaic law?! and (5) I tend to be way cynical, so sometimes I don't appreciate scripture enough.
Back before the invention of the printing press (thereby making the written Word more accessible to common folk) the scriptures were rarely read alone, individually, but were always read en masse. This helped others learn because not everyone is a visual learner, kept the reader accountable for his or her interpretation of scripture (especially in Jewish contexts), and bound the whole community together as one body. For this reason, I believe strongly that scriptures need to be interpreted and applied as a community, not just as an individual, because we are the body of Christ, not the disassociated severed head or fingers of the body.
So if you're reading this I would really appreciate your interpretations of the scriptures I am blogging about. This will help me vastly by: (1) keeping me accountable to my goals (2) keeping me accountable to heretical or imprecise interpretations of the scripture (3) enlightening me by your interpretations, experiences and incites which I whole-heartily invite, and (4) that we can learn together as a body and hopefully inspire others.
A disclaimer: those of your who know me know that I can be very long winded, so read at your own risk of boredom. Also, given the experiences I've had as a believer, our interpretations of scripture may not line up perfectly (they may not even be in the same ball park!), but if you feel strongly about something, comment and post! The best way for us both to learn is to learn together. I believe in the art of agreeing to disagree, thus exemplified by the new testament church and not so well exemplified by the modern church.
Anyway, here's your ticket, take a ride with me. May the peace of God be upon you!
Back before the invention of the printing press (thereby making the written Word more accessible to common folk) the scriptures were rarely read alone, individually, but were always read en masse. This helped others learn because not everyone is a visual learner, kept the reader accountable for his or her interpretation of scripture (especially in Jewish contexts), and bound the whole community together as one body. For this reason, I believe strongly that scriptures need to be interpreted and applied as a community, not just as an individual, because we are the body of Christ, not the disassociated severed head or fingers of the body.
So if you're reading this I would really appreciate your interpretations of the scriptures I am blogging about. This will help me vastly by: (1) keeping me accountable to my goals (2) keeping me accountable to heretical or imprecise interpretations of the scripture (3) enlightening me by your interpretations, experiences and incites which I whole-heartily invite, and (4) that we can learn together as a body and hopefully inspire others.
A disclaimer: those of your who know me know that I can be very long winded, so read at your own risk of boredom. Also, given the experiences I've had as a believer, our interpretations of scripture may not line up perfectly (they may not even be in the same ball park!), but if you feel strongly about something, comment and post! The best way for us both to learn is to learn together. I believe in the art of agreeing to disagree, thus exemplified by the new testament church and not so well exemplified by the modern church.
Anyway, here's your ticket, take a ride with me. May the peace of God be upon you!
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